1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to dispensing equipment and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a system for generating, transporting, and dispensing ice without exposure to external contaminants.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most convenience and grocery stores sell ice, typically sold in bags. The stores contract with an ice company that delivers individual bags of ice to the stores for its customers. Unfortunately, ice companies are often expensive and less than reliable in supplying bags of ice to any individual store.
In an attempt to reduce dependence upon outside ice companies, automatic ice bagging units have been developed. An ice maker of an automatic ice bagging unit delivers ice into a holding bin. An ice mover within the holding bin moves the ice from the holding bin to a bagging mechanism where the value/weight of the ice is monitored to get the appropriate size/weight of ice in the bag. Once filled the bag is sealed and dropped into a merchandiser. A disadvantage of automatic ice bagging units however is that providing a continuous supply of ice has long been problematic, especially when an automatic ice bagging unit is exposed to large volumes of consumers. The ice maker of any automatic ice bagging unit is of limited size based upon the size constraints of the automatic bagging unit as a whole. As such, the ice maker of any automatic ice bagging unit often cannot produce enough ice to satisfy customer demand. In those situations, stores resort to the manual replenishment of the merchandiser by an attendant from a large-capacity ice making system in another part of the store. This unfortunately exposes the ice to a variety of potentially unfavorable and even unhealthy conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,945, which issued Jul. 31, 2001, to Schroeder, addresses the foregoing problem through the connection of an ice supply system with a larger capacity ice maker directly to the holding bin of an automatic ice bagging unit. Unfortunately, automatic ice bagging units are large, complex, and expensive pieces of equipment. In particular, the ice bagging and weighing mechanisms of automatic ice bagging units operate less than satisfactorily in delivering the correct size/weight of ice into a bag. While U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,945 offers a solution to ice supply problems, it does not address how an ice supply system could improve the operation of an automatic ice bagging unit.
Accordingly, a method and apparatus that volumetrically supplies ice to an ice storage system such as an automatic ice bagging unit would improve over prior ice supply systems.